Tim Banks is the CEO of APM, a Canada wide construction and property development company, with its head office in Charlottetown, PEI. My family has lived on PEI for over eight generations and I was born at the Prince County Hospital in Summerside, PEI. I am hoping someone will soon develop a blood test to authenticate when you actually become an "Islander" as I am still having problems explaining where I'm from?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

So it appears the City is going to spend $54,000.00 to develop a "eco-city plan" to help us tap into more infrastructure money... never mine a "business plan" for the City as that may actually save taxpayers money.... awe what the hell... I'm prepared to do my part to help the City rescue our "environment" and personally buy a bicycle for any City employee who actually legitimately turns in his or her City gas guzzler in favour of a bicycle to carry out their City duties... I'll even throw one in for the Mayor if he'll legitimately uses it every day....Charlottetown to develop eco-city planWAYNE THIBODEAUThe GuardianThe City of Charlottetown is spending thousands of dollars to hire a consultant to help the capital city develop a long-term economic, social, cultural and environmental plan. The city has hired Stantec, a professional consulting company with offices in more than 130 cities across North America to develop the sustainability community plan. Councillor Mitchell Tweel says the city has been talking green for some time now but it lacks a master plan. He said that’s what Stantec is going to develop for Prince Edward Island’s capital city. Tweel sits on the city’s environment committee. “It’s everything,” said Tweel. “It’s the buildings that we’re building. What we’re doing with the shoreline. Gas emissions. We’re going to look at everything.” The total bill for the consultant’s work is $54,000. The city hopes the province will pay for about $32,000, leaving the city’s bill at about $22,000. Sue Hendricken, manager of parks and recreation with the City of Charlottetown, is overseeing the Stantec project. Hendricken says the federal government requires the city to complete the sustainability community plan before it can access new money from federal infrastructure programs. “It’s a requirement now that if you are going to obtain funding in the future, your municipality has to have this done,” she said. “We need to develop key strategies in respect to those four pillars, including environment, economic sustainability, social and cultural.” Still, Hendricken said it was work the city was carrying out anyway. “For the last number of years, we’ve been doing strategic planning internally with regards to what we need to do with five-, 10-, 15-year capital plans, and really what this does is it helps us flesh out the strategic plan a little bit more.” The report will be completed by Dec. 1. Tweel said he’ll be pushing to ensure residents are consulted as Stantec begins the process. “We want to open it up and have dialogue and engage our constituents. We want to be on the cutting edge.”

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

You know what I would love to see -- more Rob Lantz's on council! More councillors using our public transit, riding bikes and walking to and from public meetings. That would manufacture such a quantum shift in perception for these alternative, yet very pleasing, forms of transportation and let council develop a first-hand understanding of the challenges facing non-motorized citizens. With this new-found perception council could, and would, gain a greater appreciation for the city at larger.

My two cents. Looking forward to see if anyone takes you up on your offer.

(PS: I would recommend Devinci bikes. Sold by McQueens locally, manufactured in Canada. Very nice bikes. http://www.devinci.com/11555_an.html -- you know, just in case) ;)